Today in Entertainment: Jamie Foxx announces Hurricane Harvey relief telethon; ‘Simpsons’ fires longtime composer Alf Clausen

Mahershala Ali accepting his Oscar for “Moonlight.” The actor will star in the third season of the HBO drama “True Detective”

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

During the HBO executive session at the summer edition of the Television Critics Assn. press tour, programming president Casey Bloys confirmed reports that “Moonlight” Oscar winner Mahershala Ali would star in a third season of “True Detective.” Although he was mum at the time on when it might happen, he did say that he had read five scripts and thought they were “terrific.”

Thursday night, the premium pay cabler released a statement officially confirming that the series will indeed return for a third installment.

While no episode count or premiere date was included in the release, an enclosed synopsis stated that the next iteration of the show “tells the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks, and a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods.”

Ali will star as Wayne Hays, a state police detective from northwest Arkansas. (Ali follows in the footsteps of season one stars, and continuing executive producers, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, and season two’s Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn. No word yet on whether he’ll have a partner.)

The show will once again be helmed by creator Nic Pizzolatto, who penned all the episodes of the upcoming series, save the fourth, which he co-wrote with David Milch (“Deadwood,” “NYPD Blue”). He will share directing duties with fellow executive producer Jeremy Saulnier (“Blue Ruin.”)

“I’m tremendously thrilled to be working with artists at the level of Mahershala and Jeremy,” said Pizzolatto in a statement. “I hope the material can do justice to their talents, and we’re all very excited to tell this story.”

Bloys noted that “Nic has written truly remarkable scripts. With his ambitious vision and Mahershala Ali and Jeremy Saulnier aboard, we are excited to embark on the next installment of ‘True Detective.’ ”

It’s among the more unusual landmarks in Los Angeles, a short, steep railway that gets people up and down a single hill. So it makes sense that Angels Flight has been featured in many movies and television shows over the years.

Angels Flight resumed regular service Thursday after being closed since 2013 (it did operate for one day of shooting on “La La Land”). It remains to be seen if it starts to appear again in movies and television shows. (Not that it ever really stopped.)

Speaking to The Times at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, “La La Land” star Ryan Gosling reflected on the use of historic locations in the movie.

“This was an opportunity to show an L.A. that’s still there.... You’ve got to squint your eyes a little, but there are still places in L.A. that are still part of the golden years of Los Angeles when Hollywood was in its heyday,” Gosling said.

“I lived around the corner for a long time from Angels Flight and Grand Central Market, although I never got to ride Angels Flight because it had been shut down,” Gosling added. “Those places are still there... these gems that are there, and we were able to shoot them one by one.”

Angels Flight reopened on Thursday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The small piece of land next to the top of Angels Flight, known as Angels Knoll, was also prominently featured in “(500) Days of Summer.”

The location has appeared in a wide variety of movies over the years, as early as 1916’s “Good Night, Nurse,” 1918’s “Up She Goes” and 1920’s “All Jazzed Up.” It has also had high-profile cameos in “Act of Violence” (1949), “M” (1951), “Kiss Me Deadly” (1955), “The Exiles” (1961), “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies” (1963) -- all the way up to to 2011’s “The Muppets” and last year’s “La La Land.”

And on television, Angels Flight has been seen on “Perry Mason,” “Dragnet” and the recent series “Bosch.”

READ MORE: Angels Flight: How it works and what it’s been through in its 100-year history

(Andrew Krech / News & Record via Associated Press)

A new stream of celebrity support for victims of Hurricane Harvey opened Wednesday, as Jamie Foxx announced that a telethon fundraiser is in the works.

In an Instagram post where the actor revealed his own donation of $25,000 to GlobalGiving, Foxx also shared preliminary plans for the upcoming benefit.

“From a fellow Texan, my heart goes out. My prayers go out,” Foxx, from Terrell east of Dallas, said. “September 12 we have a telethon that we’re doing. We’ll give you more details, so we can raise as much money as we can for everybody down there.”

Scooter Braun, talent manager and mastermind of One Love Manchester, is helming the event along with rapper and Houston native Bun B.

TMZ reported that Foxx, Reese Witherspoon, Blake Shelton, Hilary Duff and Michael Strahan are all involved with the project, with commitments from the four major broadcast networks to air the special for an hour on Sept. 12.

In an interview with TMZ, Bun B said that fellow Houston natives Beyoncé and Jim Parsons are high on his wish list for the telethon. The outlet also reported that Bun B would only want President Trump’s presence if it was via a show of unity with other former presidents.

Solange also announced Wednesday that she will be holding a benefit show at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre on Sept. 28. Featuring the Sun Ra Arkestra, the performance is titled “Orion’s Rise” and all proceeds will go to Hurricane Harvey relief.

Gwyneth Paltrow takes full responsibility for her romantic failings.

She admitted as much in a recent interview with the podcast Girlboss Radio, during which Paltrow went deep on some of her lost loves.

“Oh, my god, I’ve [screwed] up so many relationships, so many,” Paltrow said. “I’m actually a pretty good friend and a good sister and a daughter and a mother, but I am at my potentially most vulnerable … in the romantic slice of the pie. So it’s taken me a lot of work to get to the place where I have a good romantic relationship.”

Paltrow “consciously uncoupled” from ex-husband Chris Martin in 2014 after 10 years of marriage and has been romantically linked to “American Horror Story” creator Brad Falchuk for the past three years.

On Girlboss Radio, Paltrow sent a shout-out to former beau Brad Pitt, whom she dated from 1994 through 1997, and was at one point engaged to.

“I [screwed] that up, Brad,” Paltrow said.

Paltrow also delved into her experiences as founder and CEO of her lifestyle brand Goop, sharing that once she’s in the boardroom with investors, no one cares if she’s a celebrity.

“I go into the room, and for the first 90 seconds, I’m Gwyneth Paltrow,” she said. “And they’re like, ‘Oh, my god, my wife loves you .... And then, about 90 seconds later, I’m just getting grilled like anyone else.”

But she doesn’t get offended; she relishes the challenge.

“It was such a beautiful chapter of my life when I started raising [venture capital financing], because it knocked me down so many pegs. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m, like, no one. I’m nothing. This [stuff] is real.’ I have to know the most granular aspects of my business and be able to defend it. The celebrity just completely drains out of the room. It’s irrelevant,” she said.

Paltrow’s full conversation with Sophia Amoruso can be streamed at Girlboss.

When the 29th season of “The Simpsons” premieres in the fall, it will, for the first time in decades, be doing so without its longtime musical contributor, Alf Clausen.

Clausen, who composed the Fox animated show’s incidental music, was told that the show was looking for “a different kind of music” moving forward, according to Variety.

Clausen confirmed his firing via Twitter.

The composer’s orchestral scores supported the family’s foibles since the show’s primitively drawn early days. And although “The Simpsons” theme song was penned by Danny Elfman, the sonic feel of the series has been defined by Clausen’s grandiose, often epic productions.

He’s responsible for scoring Mr. Burns’ breakout “See My Vest” moment and crafted the tunes for the Springfield musical theater company’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” adaptation. Ditto “The Planet of the Apes” musical.

In short, nearly every classic music moment of “The Simpsons” has featured Clausen’s fingerprints.

On Twitter, fans thanked Clausen for his work while expressing outrage at the circumstances surrounding his departure. “Fired over the phone, yet,” wrote one user.

Clausen quickly corrected him with a one-word reply: “Email ...”

On Thursday, producers for “The Simpsons” issued a statement to Variety. It stressed that Clausen will continue to contribute to the series:

“We tremendously value Alf Clausen’s contributions to ‘The Simpsons’ and he will continue to have an ongoing role in the show. We remain committed to the finest in music for ‘The Simpsons,’ absolutely including orchestral.”

The statement concluded: “This is the part where we would make a joke but neither Alf’s work nor the music of ‘The Simpsons’ is treated as anything but seriously by us.”

Update, 1:16 p.m.: This story was updated with a statement from “The Simpsons.”

The firefighter who initially resuscitated Princess Diana after her 1997 Paris car crash was certain she would live through it.

Sgt. Xavier Gourmelon, who led the response team exactly 20 years ago Thursday and administered CPR to the British royal, said in a Sun interview published Tuesday that he was convinced the Princess of Wales would make it when her heart started beating again and her breathing resumed.

Gourmelon was unaware that he was treating the so-called “People’s Princess” when he arrived at the scene of the accident in a Paris tunnel. He resuscitated her and she was conscious and her eyes were open when he pulled her from the wrecked Mercedes she was riding in with Harrods heir Dodi al Fayed and driver Henri Paul.

He said she had a slight injury to her right shoulder but saw no other significant wounds or blood on her.

“I held her hand and told her to be calm and keep still. I said I was there to help and reassured her,” Gourmelon said. “She said, ‘My God, what’s happened?’

“To be honest, I thought she would live. As far as I knew when she was in the ambulance she was alive and I expected her to live,” he added. “But I found out later she had died in hospital. It was very upsetting.”

Diana, famously eulogized as “the most hunted person of the modern age,” suffered cardiac arrest when she was placed on a stretcher. She died at the age of 36.

Prince William, left, and Prince Harry look at tributes left by members of the public outside Kensington Palace in London to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of their mother.

(Kirsty Wigglesworth / AFP/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, her sons Princes William and Harry -- second and fifth in line to the British throne, respectively -- visited a memorial garden dedicated to Diana at Kensington Palace, her former home.

The princes have worked rigorously to uphold Diana’s philanthropic legacy and spoke openly about her life and death in a series of documentaries that aired ahead of Thursday’s 20th anniversary.

In the BBC’s “Diana, 7 Days,” the princes derided the paparazzi; William called their treatment of his mother “utterly appalling” and likened the photographers constantly harassing her to a “pack of dogs.” For Harry, Diana’s final moments were made worse by the lingering photographers.

“She had quite a severe head injury but was still very much alive on the backseat,” Harry said in the documentary. “And those people that caused the accident instead of helping were taking photographs of her dying.”

ALSO

Diana 20 years later: Still rubbernecking

Princes William, Harry honor Diana’s charity work

Meeting Diana, the Princess of Wales, only made me more fascinated by her

Princes William and Harry defend Queen Elizabeth, shame paparazzi in ‘Diana, 7 Days’ doc

With the country still reeling from the harrowing impact of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Wednesday night’s “Daily Show” looked at one of the summer’s ongoing controversies: Confederate monuments.

Occasionally setting aside the show’s usual comedic tone, Trevor Noah enlisted correspondent Roy Wood Jr. to consider whether these statues honor Southern heritage, as their supporters claim, or the nation’s history and lingering problem with racism.

After showing a montage of guests on network news shows who reminded viewers that these statues were erected during the Jim Crow era, decades after the Civil War, Wood equated slavery to another tragedy.

“It’s like if a woman got out of an abusive relationship and then she had to keep pictures of her ex up in her house to remember the time,” a straight-faced Wood explained. “No, I don’t need pictures to remember pain.”

“People say, ‘We want to remember the history of the Civil War,’” Noah added. “There’s an easier way to remember what happened in the Civil War: Just walk around in the South. And if you see free black people, then you know what happened.”

Watch the segment above.

The Hollywood recycle, reduce and reuse strategy of content creation has reached a new level of ridiculousness. Deadline reported Wednesday that Warner Bros. is creating an all-girl film adaptation of William Golding’s classic novel “Lord of the Flies.”

Twitter is not amused.

But instead of the typical “childhood-ruining” complaints levied against gender-swapped reboots, such as last year’s “Ghostbusters,” the Internet is angry that recasting the story with women fundamentally misses the entire point of the novel.

For those with only hazy memories of their 9th-grade literature class, “Lord of the Flies” is a 1954 novel about a group of British boys trapped on an uninhabited island, forced to govern themselves, to disastrous and deadly ends.

There have already been three cinematic adaptations of the book -- in 1963, 1975 and 1990 -- all with male casts.

In most interpretations, the boys’ failure at self-governance is meant to mirror modern society’s own tendency toward toxic masculinity and harmful posturing.

Golding said as much himself about that issue in an introduction for a “Flies” audiobook, where he spoke about how the book wouldn’t work using women.

“I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men. They are far superior and always have been,” Golding said.

Twitter also had plenty to say about the fact that the Warner Bros. project, despite starring all women, will still be directed and written by two men, Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

Also, Internet denizens pointed out, if Hollywood wants to focus on the brutality and cutthroat nature of teenage girls, there are already plenty of examples.

Still, at least someone is looking at the positive potential of the project. Anyone up for a Themyscira origin story?

(Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images)

Gloria Gaynor wants people affected by Harvey to know they will survive, and she’s communicating that message through a new version of the song that has defined her career.

Gaynor, whose “I Will Survive” became an anthem over the years, rewrote the 1978 disco hit to reach out to victims in Texas and posted her rendition on social media Wednesday.

“Hi, my neighbors in Texas,” she said in a video shot while she sat at a piano she was about to play. “This is Gloria Gaynor with a song that hopefully will cheer you up just a little bit.”

Here are the tweaked lyrics, for those who don’t want to hit “play” with the sound on.

Similarly on Monday night, Coldplay unleashed a new original song written after the band was forced to cancel its Friday show in Houston with Hurricane Harvey bearing down.

“This is a new song, and we’ll never play it again,” frontman Chris Martin told an audience in Miami. “It’s a once-off. It’s called ‘Houston.’ We’re going to sing it in Miami for everybody here, and then we’re going to send it over there to everyone who missed the show.”

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Leonardo DiCaprio has stepped up with a $1-million donation to aid the victims of Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, which has dumped historic levels of rain on the Gulf Coast over the last several days.

United Way Worldwide announced Wednesday that it has started the United Way Harvey Recovery Fund with a seven-figure donation from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

The money — 100% of it, according to the charity — will go to help victims of flooding with mid- and long-term recovery over the coming years. There are 23 United Ways that operate in the path of the storm, which made landfall Aug. 24.

“We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of Leonardo DiCaprio and his foundation,” United Way Worldwide President and CEO Brian Gallagher said in a statement. “Responding to Hurricane Harvey requires the best of all of us — and that’s what this gift represents.”

DiCaprio has been urging support of the United Way and American Red Cross this week on his Twitter account and retweeting stories talking about Harvey and climate change.

Di Caprio’s foundation “has been committed to climate-related issues and environmental projects since 1998,” Terry Tamminen, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a statement. “We support efforts to build climate resilient communities and protect vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems across the planet, and have supported disaster relief and victim funds in the past. We hope others will step up and support the United Way and other organizations.”

Earlier this week, Sandra Bullock, who has a home in Texas, gave $1 million to the American Red Cross, repeating the lump-sum generosity she showed after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Ellen DeGeneres was also in the seven-figure donation tier. The comic and talk-show host dropped $1 million in the relief bucket on Wednesday via J.J. Watt’s foundation. The effort by the Houston Texans’ star player topped $10 million on Thursday, with Watt chronicling its progress all week via videos on social media.

Update, 8:50 a.m.: This post was updated with information about DeGeneres’ donation to Watt’s fund.

(Iris Schneider / Los Angeles Times)

FROM THE ARCHIVES: In a Big Rush

Bruce Springsteen’s solo shows on Broadway have been extended through February, just hours after the original run sold out.

(Greg Allen / Invision/Associated Press)

Good news for Bruce Springsteen fans who were locked out of purchasing tickets Wednesday morning for his upcoming run of shows on Broadway.

Ticketmaster announced that “Springsteen on Broadway,” an intimate stage experience that launches in October and features the rock legend performing solo, will be extending for 10 additional weeks.

Originally scheduled to close in November, the show was extended through February after the original block of tickets sold out in a matter of minutes Wednesday.

“#SpringsteenBroadway has been EXTENDED!” the ticket outlet tweeted, with a follow-up tweet explaining that fans who had previously registered to purchase tickets will not have to register again.

Springsteen will be performing at New York City’s Walter Kerr Theater, which houses fewer than 1,000 seats. To curtail ticket scalping, Ticketmaster relied on its Verified Fan program.

The program forces fans to register to even have an opportunity to purchase tickets and are limited to two tickets per purchase.

For all of Ticketmaster’s efforts, resale sites already are flooded with “Springsteen on Broadway” tickets, with some reaching $10,000 apiece.

Fans interested in trying their luck for the second batch of performance dates will need to register with Ticketmaster Verified Fan by Sept. 3 (at 7 p.m. Pacific).

Tickets will be available for purchase 10 a.m. Pacific on Sept. 7.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland has strengthened her resolve in her court battle with FX and “Feud” showrunner Ryan Murphy.

The 101-year-old, two-time Oscar winner regarded the network’s “weak” move on Tuesday to dismiss her latest complaint as a sign of “their continuing disrespect for her and for California law,” her attorney Suzelle M. Smith said in a statement to The Times on Wednesday.

It’s the latest development in the “Gone With the Wind” star’s lawsuit against FX and Murphy, which she filed in June over her depiction in “Feud: Bette and Joan,” the miniseries about rival actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

The Paris-based De Havilland, who was played by Catherine Zeta-Jones in the docudrama, makes four major legal claims about violations of her common law and statutory rights of publicity, her right to privacy and unjust enrichment.

Read More

Sandra Bullock donated $1 million to the American Red Cross for storm relief.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

With the Gulf Coast still battling the aftereffects of Tropical Storm Harvey, celebrities continue to come forward to help with relief efforts for the humanitarian crisis.

Sandra Bullock, who has a home in Texas, donated $1 million to the American Red Cross’ emergency efforts, the organization confirmed to The Times on Wednesday.

“We are so thankful for the overwhelming and generous response from those who want to help those affected by this devastating storm,” Elizabeth Penniman, vice president of communications for American Red Cross national headquarters, said in an email.

“Massive disasters like Hurricane Harvey create many critical and immediate needs, so we are heartened by donations like this – which allow us to provide immediate shelter, food and comfort to thousands in need,” Penniman continued. “The entertainment community has been so supportive to the Red Cross in response to this devastating disaster, and we are so grateful.”

Bullock is just the latest star who has donated to recovery efforts in Texas. The Kardashian family pledged $500,000 to the Salvation Army and Red Cross on Tuesday. Kevin Hart also spearheaded a celebrity-driven fundraising campaign on Crowdrise that has brought in more than $1 million for the Red Cross.

Corinne Olympios doesn’t have any hard feelings toward DeMario Jackson, the fellow “Bachelor in Paradise” cast member who was with her at the center of a scandal that shut down production on the reality TV series in June.

“I don’t blame DeMario. I never pointed fingers at DeMario. I never said a bad word about DeMario,” the 25-year-old told host Chris Harrison in an early-August taped interview that aired Tuesday night on ABC.

She and Jackson haven’t spoken since production was halted after allegations of misconduct were made by a producer, leading to an investigation of what happened during a period when, Olympios now says, she was blacked out.

“I was almost a little bit nervous to talk to [DeMario], because he did run to the media and I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire,” she said. Before she had a chance to collect her thoughts, he was out there and “so on the defensive,” she said.

“He was doing his thing and I didn’t want to get messed up in that. ... I can’t help but feel like maybe he felt like I thought he did something to me.”

Jackson did not do anything bad, she insisted. Seeing him start crying in a clip from his own interview with Harrison, which had aired on the show last week, Olympios welled up a bit too.

“It was hard for me to go through something like that. I know exactly how he feels. The media wants to paint you a certain way that you know you’re just not,” she said.

Olympios told Harrison the same things she had said in a Tuesday morning interview with “Good Morning America” about blacking out from drinking too much and mixing alcohol with medication.

However, she didn’t directly address her “I am a victim” statement that was released at the height of the scandal. On “GMA,” she said she meant she was a victim of the media.

Regarding “Bachelor in Paradise” with Harrison, she simply talked about how awful it was to have so many people acting like they had been there or were suddenly experts on her life.

“To even get up and go get eggs at the grocery store ... my face was all over every magazine and I had to check out and everyone’s staring,” Olympios said. “You’re looking at them and it’s like, ‘I’m not what you’re thinking right now.’”

Then, near the end of the interview, she shared one big wish.

“Obviously hindsight is 20/20,” she said, “and I wish it could have been handled differently.”

Conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren is again gainfully employed after being fired from Glenn Beck’s The Blaze in March.

On Wednesday, Lahren announced via her Facebook page that she is joining the Fox News team as a contributor.

“This exciting new step will allow me to give voice to all the America-loving patriots who have had my back since day one,” Lahren wrote. “I will remain a solid and passionate advocate for you.”

Though 25-year-old Lahren has made television appearances before -- including a contentious appearance on “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” -- much of her career has been in digital media.

She hosted “On Point With Tomi Lahren” for One America News Network, and her “Final Thought” videos have garnered her over 4.4 million Facebook followers.

In addition to her role as a contributor, Lahren will also have a “signature role” on a Fox News digital product in development, according to a press release issued by the network.

Lahren makes her debut on Wednesday’s edition of “Hannity” at 7 p.m. PDT.

Even as the Earth offers humanity another taste of its weather future — and President Trump keeps Sheriff Joe Arpaio out of jail and North Korean missiles fly over Japan — late-night TV hosts have disappeared from their chairs as if it were August in France.

Trevor Noah is on the job, though, hosting “The Daily Show.” Tuesday night, he had some mirthful words about the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russian affairs. Specifically, he reflected on the revelation of a letter of intent, signed by POTUS himself, to build a Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow — and make it the tallest building in the world — despite Trump’s repeated claims to have no business, no interests, no nothing in Russia.

“How can one person lie so big? HOW?” Noah asked, amazedly. “It’s like if your friend said he had never heard of Mumford and Sons and then one day you see the album cover and you’re like, wait a minute, you’re Mumford.”

Were those connections “strictly business, or were they getting out on the votey-votey action? That’s not clear yet,” he said.

What was clear is that a typically dubious character was at the center of it — namely Felix Sater, a Russian-born real estate developer once convicted of stabbing a man in the neck and face with the stem of a broken margarita glass.

“Of all the glasses to stab someone with, a margarita glass is the worst,” Noah said. “You’re literally putting salt into the wounds.”

There was also a conviction for Sater’s involvement in a $40-million stock fraud, Noah added, which came as no surprise to the host. “You never trust someone with a cat name. If a human goes by Felix or Whiskers or Mittens, you should probably just stay away.”

There were emails, of course; there are always emails.

“Buddy, our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this,” Sater wrote to Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen.

“This buddy boy email may not be the smoking gun for Trump,” Noah concluded, “but what it could end up being is the broken taillight — the thing that gives law enforcement the excuse they need to look into Trump’s trunk.

“And we all know,” he said, as a picture of the golfing president’s derriere appeared over his shoulder, “he’s got a lot of junk in that trunk.”

(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Kathy Griffin said in June that she was sorry. Now she’s retracting her tearful apology for that controversial photo shoot featuring her holding a fake severed head in the likeness of President Trump and treating the backlash as a joke.

“I’m no longer sorry. The whole outrage was B.S. The whole thing got so blown out of proportion, and I lost everybody,” she said Tuesday during an appearance on the Australian morning show “Sunrise,” where she was promoting her “Laugh Your Head Off” world tour, which will head Down Under for five shows in October.

“Like, I had Chelsea Clinton tweeting against me,” she said. “I had friends, Debra Messing from ‘Will & Grace,’ tweeting against me. I mean, I lost everybody.”

At the time, the president tweeted, “Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”

The 56-year-old, via video from L.A., told “Sunrise” that she was on a mission to warn others that this could happen to them and said she had talked to Australians who were now afraid to come to America.

“I have been through the mill ...,” she said. “I didn’t just lose one night on CNN. My entire tour was canceled within 24 hours because every single theater got all these death threats. I mean, these Trump fans, they’re hard-core. They have robo-calls, they’re annoying.”

After her emotional apology in early June, people were reluctant to forgive her. Among the friends she lost was Anderson Cooper, her bestie of 17 years, who in the aftermath of her gory photo shoot called it “disgusting and completely inappropriate.” Griffin said in an interview with the Cut that Cooper didn’t text her personally until Aug. 10. She didn’t text back.

In her apology, the comic said things like: “He picked me. Do you get it? I’m the easiest target” and “I’m not afraid of Donald Trump. He’s a bully. I’ve dealt with older white guys trying to keep me down my whole life, my whole career” and “I don’t think I will have a career after this. I’m going to be honest, he broke me.”

On “Sunrise,” when one of the anchors pressed her regarding the appropriateness of that controversial photo shoot, which critics said was reminiscent of a terrorist pose after a beheading, Griffin fought back.

“No, you’re full of crap, stop this,” Griffin said. “You know this. Stop acting like my little picture is more important than talking about the actual atrocities that the president of the United States is committing.”

No more on-camera tears for this comic. See the full interview on “Sunrise.”

(Claudio Onorati / Associated Press)

Though there aren’t as many women represented at this year’s Venice Film Festival as she would like, jury president Annette Bening believes “things are changing.”

The four-time Oscar nominee, whose film credits include “American Beauty,” “The Kids Are All Right,” “20th Century Women” and “Bugsy,” addressed the lack of female directors Wednesday during the 74th annual Venice Film Festival‘s opening press conference. (Only one of the 21 films in competition is directed by a woman this year.)

“As women, we have to be sharp, shrewd and creative in what we choose to make. Sexism does exist and there is no question about it. But things are changing,” the actress said at the opening press conference, according to Variety.

“The more we can make films that speak to everybody, the more we will be regarded as filmmakers,” she added.

Bening, the first woman to chair the jury in more than a decade, said she knew of both veteran and rookie filmmakers struggling to get their movies made “whether they are men or women.”

She said the industry has “a long way to go, in terms of parity” but was confident that the “direction we’re going is positive.”

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Taking news personally

First Lady Melania Trump boards Air Force One in heels to visit Hurricane Harvey victims.

(AFP/Getty Images)

What’s the best disaster relief outfit for a government official?

Cargo pants? Galoshes? A yellow rain jacket a la Curious George?

For Melania Trump, who wore orange Manolo Blahnik stilettos as she departed the White House for Camp David a week ago, a sleek pair of black high heels with slim trousers and an on-trend bomber jacket must have seemed like a sensible traveling ensemble this morning.

The first lady of the United States, along with President Trump, boarded Air Force One early Tuesday and headed to Texas, where Hurricane Harvey has ravaged local communities. What garnered a huge chunk of attention, however, was FLOTUS’ stiletto heels, which many on the Internet criticized even before the presidential plane touched down in Texas.

Of the criticism, the first lady’s communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told Fox News via email: “It’s sad that we have an active and ongoing natural disaster in Texas, and people are worried about her shoes.”

Still, whether in response to critics or a previously planned outfit change, FLOTUS’ pumps were traded for crispy white sneakers by the time the plane landed in Corpus Christi.

The Internet didn’t exactly apologize, but Trump supporters were happy to point out the wardrobe adjustment and taunt the media.

Director Spike Lee photographed in 2015.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

As the city of Charlottesville, Va., and the nation as a whole continues to grapple with the violent racial strife that erupted earlier this month, the Virginia Film Festival announced on Tuesday that it will host filmmaker Spike Lee as a special guest at the upcoming festival as part of a program around the legacy of slavery.

Lee, who has tackled thorny issues of race throughout his career, will present his Oscar-nominated documentary “4 Little Girls” about the 1963 bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham, Ala., that claimed the lives of four African American girls, an act of white supremacist terrorism that marked a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement.

“We have for many years been interested in bringing Spike Lee to the Virginia Film Festival as he remains one of the most talented, innovative, and socially conscious filmmakers in our world today,” said Jody Kielbasa, director of the film festival and vice provost for the arts at the University of Virginia. “We first reached out to Mr. Lee in the spring to include him in our upcoming collaboration with Montpelier, and of course, the recent events in Charlottesville have made his participation more compelling, relevant and vital.”

The festival program will also include a short film titled “I Can’t Breathe” that combines footage of the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner during his arrest by a New York City police officer with footage of the death of Radio Raheem under similar circumstances in Lee’s 1989 film “Do the Right Thing.

The program is part of a larger collaboration with Montpelier, the Virginia plantation of President James Madison, who owned more than 100 slaves, that will explore both how the legacy of slavery continues to affect the lives of African Americans and how they are depicted in film and other media.

The 30th annual Virginia Film Festival will run from Nov. 9 to 12 in Charlottesville.

The first trailer for Netflix’s stand-up special “Jerry Before Seinfeld” has arrived, and it’s a madcap recap of Jerry Seinfeld’s humble beginnings, quirky family dynamics and bits of everyday observations.

The teaser opens with Johnny Carson introducing the iconic comic in 1981 during his debut on “The Tonight Show.” Then it showcases the sitcom star back at the mike at the Comic Strip, the famous New York comedy club where he launched his career. Throwback photos, videos and interviews with Seinfeld are woven throughout.

“He’s back where he began,” the title reads, “doing what he loves.”

The original comedy special is the first of two stand-up specials Seinfeld will deliver in his massive deal with the streaming giant. (The deal also includes the entirety of his “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” catalog and 24 new episodes of the Emmy-nominated talk show, which will launch later this year.)

Seinfeld and Netflix teased to the special last week with several clips posted on Instagram and a close-up look at the numerous legal pads scrawled with handwritten jokes he’s kept from the 1970s.

“Jerry Before Seinfeld” begins streaming Sept. 19.

The new Kermit the Frog has arrived and he’s following his dreams -- literally.

New Muppeteer Matt Vogel made his vocal debut as the iconic frog on Monday in a “Muppet Thought of the Week” video posted on YouTube.

“Dreams are how we figure out where we want to go. Life is how we get there,” he says in the brief clip. “I’m headed this way.”

The veteran voice actor has worked on “Sesame Street” and also operates the Muppets Floyd, Constantine and Sweetums. He is only the third puppeteer to take on Kermit the Frog full time since the character was created in 1955. He replaced former puppeteer Steve Whitmire, who began work on “The Muppet Show” in 1978 and inherited the role of Kermit when creator Jim Henson died in 1990.

Whitmire was dismissed over concerns about his “repeated unacceptable business conduct over a period of many years and he consistently failed to address the feedback,” the Muppets Studio said at the time.

Whitmire claimed he was fired in October 2016 and kept quiet about it until Vogel was announced as his replacement in July. It was his “opinionated communication style” that earned him his walking papers, he said.

The Kardashians are picking up the gauntlet thrown down by Kevin Hart.

The comedian took to Instagram Sunday night to levy a challenge to fellow celebrities to raise funds for Tropical Storm Harvey flood relief, as Houston and surrounding areas were ravaged by the historic storm.

On Tuesday, several members of the Kardashian clan took to the Internet to answer Hart’s call, collectively pledging $500,000 to the cause.

“Houston we are praying for you,” Khloé Kardashian tweeted immediately after announcing the family’s donation to the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Soon after Khloé’s announcement, sister Kim Kardashian West and mother Kris Jenner tweeted similar sentiments, both in sending prayers to Houston and reiterating the family’s donation to the charitable organizations.

The Kardashian family is not alone in its altruism, though some parties have chosen to be more reserved in the promotion of their support.

Houston’s favorite daughter, Beyoncé, told the Houston Chronicle Monday that she was working closely with her philanthropic organization BeyGOOD to support relief efforts.

“My heart goes out to my hometown, Houston, and I remain in constant prayer for those affected and for the rescuers who have been so brave and determined to do so much to help,” she told the Chronicle.

“I am working closely with my team at BeyGOOD as well as my pastor (Rudy Rasmus at St. John’s in downtown Houston) to implement a plan to help as many as we can.”

Some areas of Houston have seen more than 40 inches of rain since Friday night, and with continued rain Tuesday morning, Addicks Dam outside the city experienced its first-ever spillway breach. It is estimated that more than 450,000 people will seek federal aid in the wake of the storm.

“The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah broke down former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s presidential pardon on Monday, explaining how President Trump’s decision undermines the judicial branch of government.

The controversial Maricopa County lawman, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court for violating Latinos’ rights, earned himself a thuggish reputation as a sheriff, Noah said, citing his agency’s use of tent cities, stun guns, jail overcrowding and numerous cases of inmate deaths and police brutality.

But those were “just his extracurriculars,” Noah said. “It turns out his full-time job is racism.”

The 85-year-old Arpaio was found guilty in July of defying a 2011 court order barring officers from stopping and detaining Latino motorists to check their immigration status.

“As much as Sheriff Arpaio presented himself as anti-illegal immigrants, it turned out really he was just anti being a decent human being,” Noah said.

His abuses hurt inmates and taxpayers, costing the state $142 million in legal fees, settlements and compliance costs, Noah said. Other things they could have spent that money on? “Schools, roads or they could have just paid Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather to just punch Arpaio in the face.”

But Noah made the point that Trump’s decision completely undercut the judiciary.

“Remember how the three branches of government are supposed to be equal? Well, convicting someone of contempt is the one and only way the judicial branch can put muscle behind its decisions. So when the president of the United States steps in and pardons someone’s contempt conviction, he’s essentially rendering the courts powerless,” he said.

Watch the full segment above.

(Jens Meyer / Associated Press)

On Monday night in Miami, Coldplay’s Chris Martin drew attention to the victims of Tropical Storm Harvey by unveiling a new song called “Houston” -- and then vowed never to play it again.

The band, which was forced to cancel its Houston show days earlier due to the storm, wrote the song as the region was enduring historic flooding.

After acknowledging that he and the band all “grew up loving country music, and, of course, that’s kind of what we think of when we go to Texas,” Martin asked the crowd to bear with them.

“This is a new song, and we’ll never play it again,” Martin said. “It’s a once-off. It’s called ‘Houston.’ We’re going to sing it in Miami for everybody here and then we’re going to send it over there to everyone who missed the show.”

Vowing to return to Houston, Martin and band huddled and tentatively started a twangy little number.

“I’m dreaming of when I get back to Houston,” sang Martin, replete with a touch of Johnny Cash-ian twang. Describing it as “that city where they send you into space,” Martin crooned of “Corpus Christi, Harris County, Galveston,” of “a harmony that hums down there in Houston,” and urged the region to “keep on keeping on.”

Merle Haggard it wasn’t (and everyone’s a critic), but the performance drew huge applause from fans and went viral on Tuesday morning.

Coldplay’s quick-turnaround ditty is hardly the first to document such deluges. Johnny Cash’s “Three Feet High and Rising” occurred in real time as a family struggled to keep dry.

In Charley Patton’s “High Water Everywhere,” the country blues singer recalled the lives lost in the Great Flood of 1927, which consumed the Mississippi Delta and spawned dozens of songs: “Oh, Lordy, women is groaning down / Oh, Lordy, women and children sinking down,” Patton sang. “I couldn’t see nobody home, and was no one to be found.”

Below is another song about the flood of ‘27: Bessie Smith’s “Backwater Blues.”

Glen and Kim Campbell photographed during an interview with The Times at their Malibu home on July 27, 2011.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

It’s been three weeks since the death of country music legend Glen Campbell, but the world continues to mourn the loss of the “Wichita Lineman” singer.

At an invitation-only memorial service held for the showman last Thursday at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater, his widow, Kim Campbell, delivered a stirring eulogy.

Campbell’s wife told assembled family and friends that she wished she could tell them all about who her husband was when they weren’t around. But she didn’t need to.

“There were no secrets with Glen,” Kim Campbell said. “He was the real deal all the time.”

In Campbell’s eulogy she utilized visuals from the recent solar eclipse to illustrate her loss.

“A few days ago, I put on protective glasses to watch the eclipse. It was disorienting. Everything was so dark. I felt like I had suddenly gone blind. But when I gazed up at the sun, I could still feel its warmth and see its soft glow through the lenses,” Campbell wrote.

“Then I noticed a little sliver of pure darkness begin to cover the light.”

Read the rest of Campbell’s poignant eulogy at CareLiving.org.

ALSO

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Glen Campbell’s Alzheimer’s battle added a heroic coda to a pop-country star’s life

Times photographer remembers a 2011 shoot with Glen Campbell

(Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)

Corinne Olympios says medication, the booze and the media were key players in June’s production-stopping “Bachelor in Paradise” scandal and its aftermath.

Calling the situation “just really unfortunate,” she said Tuesday on “Good Morning America” that she doesn’t remember anything that happened. Seeing video of what transpired on the first day of production on the looking-for-love reality show was “like watching not-me,” she said. “I’m watching someone else.”

On that day, Olympios and fellow cast member DeMario Jackson allegedly wound up in the pool or hot tub together in a situation that a producer thought went too far. Allegations of “misconduct” were made, and production shut down the next day for an investigation that ultimately determined nothing untoward had happened.

The show, sans Corinne and DeMario, premiered its fourth season Aug. 14, a week later than originally planned.

“I did drink, too much, I definitely understand that,” Olympios said. “But I was also on a medication that severely blacks you out and impairs your judgment and messes with your balance, that I didn’t know you were not supposed to not drink on, and so it really just caused a horrible, horrible blackout. It was like I went under like anesthesia and then just like woke up.”

She’s now weaning off the medication, she said, and cutting down on her drinking. But in explaining her provocative official statement that she was “a victim” living out her “worst nightmare,” Olympios revealed her specific definition of victimhood, which had little or nothing to do with consent, which was a hot topic throughout the scandal.

“I was really a victim of the media,” Olympios said. “It was just, all of a sudden people became an expert on the situation and on what happened, and it was like, I’m still trying to figure out exactly what happened. It was just horrible to deal with.

“It got really, really bad. ...,” she added. “The things people say are just insane.”

When the remaining “Paradise” cast met as a whole on the first episode of the season, their sympathies seemed to lie with Jackson as they worried about the long-term effects the scandal would have on him and any future career opportunities, especially given the lingering racial issues of alleged misconduct between a white woman and a black man.

However, they were quick to say they were not “slut-shaming” Olympios either.

Jackson spoke last week on “Bachelor in Paradise,” sitting down with host Chris Harrison to give his take on what happened. Here’s a taste of that, courtesy of “GMA”:

Angels will fly over the Great Wall of China in November as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show heads to Shanghai for the first time.

Supermodels Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo, Candice Swanepoel, Lily Aldridge and more will strut their stuff for the annual lingerie extravaganza, Victoria’s Secret and CBS said in a statement on Tuesday.

The iconic pre-holiday show — replete with teensy underwear and massive angel wings — is usually filmed in New York, but Miami, Los Angeles and London have also hosted the scantily clad runway walk.

The broadcast will air on CBS on Nov. 28 and will be shown in more than 190 countries.

Models Elsa Hosk, Jasmine Tookes, Josephine Skriver, Lais Ribeiro, Martha Hunt, Romee Strijd, Sara Sampaio, Stella Maxwell and Taylor Hill will also walk in this year’s show.

Musical performers will be announced at a later date, the statement said.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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